Tweeting the fall of the Berlin Wall

Posted by Betsey Reinsborough on November 10, 2009 at 3:34 PM

The Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago yesterday, and the coverage of the anniversary has caused many newspapers to abandon traditional methods of news coverage for newer, more technologically focused reporting, according to the Guardian. This follows in the footsteps of the current trend of using social and digital media to reach as many readers as possible. The Guardian has posted videos of interviews with Berliners on how the Wall affected the city; the New York Times asked for reader submitted photos and memories; the BBC created an interactive map to show where pieces of the wall were on display throughout the world.

Perhaps the largest undertaking is Reporters Without Borders' Berlin Twitterwall. The wall displays tweets hashtagged with #fotw. The wall displays up to five tweets daily from anyone who wishes to "share your thoughts on the Fall of the Berlin Wall now or let us know which walls still have to come down to make our world a better place!" Sadly, China blocked the page after more than 2 000 Chinese users tweeted on the Wall, proving that there are still many walls that exist in this world to be torn down.

The TwitterWall page also displays photos of the 1 000 dominos that were painted by people around the world. These dominos were lined up along the path of the wall and then toppled over as part of last night's festivities.

The Berlin Project is composed of five young reporters from the City University's Graduate School of Journalism. The project focuses on the possible innovations available through new media sources and looks to demonstrate these possibilities. The site utilizes video, audio tracks, photo galleries, blogs, and mobile video to explore news of the anniversary.

Another innovative use of digital media was British performance artist Martin Butler's The Mauer Mob. He used Facebook and other social networks to organize a flash mob of 33 000 people to link arms and spend 15 minutes recreating the path of the wall last night. This wall of people was organized entirely over the Butler's site, which allowed participants to reserve a place in the wall by giving their contact information.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall signalled the end of the Cold War and the coverage of the 20th anniversary has signalled a major shift in the way major news stories are reported. This technological revolution will only continue to change the world, just as the Fall of the Wall has.

Source: Guardian